Martin reported that there is a libbpf complaining of non-zero-value tail
padding with LIBBPF_OPTS_RESET macro if struct bpf_netkit_opts is modified
to have a 4-byte tail padding. This only happens to clang compiler.
The commend line is: ./test_progs -t tc_netkit_multi_links
Martin and I did some investigation and found this indeed the case and
the following are the investigation details.
Clang 18:
clang version 18.0.0
<I tried clang15/16/17 and they all have similar results>
tools/lib/bpf/libbpf_common.h:
#define LIBBPF_OPTS_RESET(NAME, ...) \
do { \
memset(&NAME, 0, sizeof(NAME)); \
NAME = (typeof(NAME)) { \
.sz = sizeof(NAME), \
__VA_ARGS__ \
}; \
} while (0)
#endif
tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.h:
struct bpf_netkit_opts {
/* size of this struct, for forward/backward compatibility */
size_t sz;
__u32 flags;
__u32 relative_fd;
__u32 relative_id;
__u64 expected_revision;
size_t :0;
};
#define bpf_netkit_opts__last_field expected_revision
In the above struct bpf_netkit_opts, there is no tail padding.
prog_tests/tc_netkit.c:
static void serial_test_tc_netkit_multi_links_target(int mode, int target)
{
...
LIBBPF_OPTS(bpf_netkit_opts, optl);
...
LIBBPF_OPTS_RESET(optl,
.flags = BPF_F_BEFORE,
.relative_fd = bpf_program__fd(skel->progs.tc1),
);
...
}
Let us make the following source change, note that we have a 4-byte
tailing padding now.
diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.h b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.h
index 6cd9c501624f..0dd83910ae9a 100644
--- a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.h
+++ b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.h
@@ -803,13 +803,13 @@ bpf_program__attach_tcx(const struct bpf_program *prog, int ifindex,
struct bpf_netkit_opts {
/* size of this struct, for forward/backward compatibility */
size_t sz;
- __u32 flags;
__u32 relative_fd;
__u32 relative_id;
__u64 expected_revision;
+ __u32 flags;
size_t :0;
};
-#define bpf_netkit_opts__last_field expected_revision
+#define bpf_netkit_opts__last_field flags
The clang 18 generated asm code looks like below:
; LIBBPF_OPTS_RESET(optl,
55e3: 48 8d 7d 98 leaq -0x68(%rbp), %rdi
55e7: 31 f6 xorl %esi, %esi
55e9: ba 20 00 00 00 movl $0x20, %edx
55ee: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 0x55f3 <serial_test_tc_netkit_multi_links_target+0x18d3>
55f3: 48 c7 85 10 fd ff ff 20 00 00 00 movq $0x20, -0x2f0(%rbp)
55fe: 48 8b 85 68 ff ff ff movq -0x98(%rbp), %rax
5605: 48 8b 78 18 movq 0x18(%rax), %rdi
5609: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 0x560e <serial_test_tc_netkit_multi_links_target+0x18ee>
560e: 89 85 18 fd ff ff movl %eax, -0x2e8(%rbp)
5614: c7 85 1c fd ff ff 00 00 00 00 movl $0x0, -0x2e4(%rbp)
561e: 48 c7 85 20 fd ff ff 00 00 00 00 movq $0x0, -0x2e0(%rbp)
5629: c7 85 28 fd ff ff 08 00 00 00 movl $0x8, -0x2d8(%rbp)
5633: 48 8b 85 10 fd ff ff movq -0x2f0(%rbp), %rax
563a: 48 89 45 98 movq %rax, -0x68(%rbp)
563e: 48 8b 85 18 fd ff ff movq -0x2e8(%rbp), %rax
5645: 48 89 45 a0 movq %rax, -0x60(%rbp)
5649: 48 8b 85 20 fd ff ff movq -0x2e0(%rbp), %rax
5650: 48 89 45 a8 movq %rax, -0x58(%rbp)
5654: 48 8b 85 28 fd ff ff movq -0x2d8(%rbp), %rax
565b: 48 89 45 b0 movq %rax, -0x50(%rbp)
; link = bpf_program__attach_netkit(skel->progs.tc2, ifindex, &optl);
At -O0 level, the clang compiler creates an intermediate copy.
We have below to store 'flags' with 4-byte store and leave another 4 byte
in the same 8-byte-aligned storage undefined,
5629: c7 85 28 fd ff ff 08 00 00 00 movl $0x8, -0x2d8(%rbp)
and later we store 8-byte to the original zero'ed buffer
5654: 48 8b 85 28 fd ff ff movq -0x2d8(%rbp), %rax
565b: 48 89 45 b0 movq %rax, -0x50(%rbp)
This caused a problem as the 4-byte value at [%rbp-0x2dc, %rbp-0x2e0)
may be garbage.
gcc (gcc 11.4) does not have this issue as it does zeroing struct first before
doing assignments:
; LIBBPF_OPTS_RESET(optl,
50fd: 48 8d 85 40 fc ff ff leaq -0x3c0(%rbp), %rax
5104: ba 20 00 00 00 movl $0x20, %edx
5109: be 00 00 00 00 movl $0x0, %esi
510e: 48 89 c7 movq %rax, %rdi
5111: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 0x5116 <serial_test_tc_netkit_multi_links_target+0x1522>
5116: 48 8b 45 f0 movq -0x10(%rbp), %rax
511a: 48 8b 40 18 movq 0x18(%rax), %rax
511e: 48 89 c7 movq %rax, %rdi
5121: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 0x5126 <serial_test_tc_netkit_multi_links_target+0x1532>
5126: 48 c7 85 40 fc ff ff 00 00 00 00 movq $0x0, -0x3c0(%rbp)
5131: 48 c7 85 48 fc ff ff 00 00 00 00 movq $0x0, -0x3b8(%rbp)
513c: 48 c7 85 50 fc ff ff 00 00 00 00 movq $0x0, -0x3b0(%rbp)
5147: 48 c7 85 58 fc ff ff 00 00 00 00 movq $0x0, -0x3a8(%rbp)
5152: 48 c7 85 40 fc ff ff 20 00 00 00 movq $0x20, -0x3c0(%rbp)
515d: 89 85 48 fc ff ff movl %eax, -0x3b8(%rbp)
5163: c7 85 58 fc ff ff 08 00 00 00 movl $0x8, -0x3a8(%rbp)
; link = bpf_program__attach_netkit(skel->progs.tc2, ifindex, &optl);
It is not clear how to resolve the compiler code generation as the compiler
generates correct code w.r.t. how to handle unnamed padding in C standard.
So this patch changed LIBBPF_OPTS_RESET macro to avoid uninitialized tail
padding. We already knows LIBBPF_OPTS macro works on both gcc and clang,
even with tail padding. So LIBBPF_OPTS_RESET is changed to be a
LIBBPF_OPTS followed by a memcpy(), thus avoiding uninitialized tail padding.
